Vibration absorbers are used to reduce peak vibrations that can impair material stability or lead to acoustic problems. The absorber takes in vibration energy from oscillations situated around its own resonant frequency. In this process, due to its damping characteristics, the rubber spring absorbs vibration energy from the object to be protected. This minimizes the resulting peak amplitudes.

WEGU has developed an overload protection for vibration absorbers which ensures that the absorber can fulfill its function throughout the entire lifetime of the vehicle. The protection mechanism was realized inside the absorber body in the form of an elastic stop buffer which guarantees that the vibration absorbing characteristics do not shift due to mechanic shocks transmitted by the elastic support structure to which the absorber is mounted.

When the absorber acceleration exceeds a certain threshold value, e.g. when driving on roads of poor quality, the elastic stop buffer clings to the cylindrical shaft of the mounting bolt thus preventing dangerous accelerations that could cause the absorber to fail. The elastic stop buffer reduces relative movements of the absorber mass versus the mounting bolt through two mechanisms, the generation of counteracting elastic forces and the conversion of kinetic energy into heat.

Under normal driving conditions the stop buffer will have no contact with the mounting bolt. In these cases the buffer only moves within the free available space.

 

 

Figure 1: WEGU vibration absorber with elastic stop buffer